This competition was organised  by the municipality of Stockholm to stimulate young architecture firms to come with new ideas for residential architecture. Out of 30 teams Urban Couture, together with Storstaden Bostad, was selected to compete against three other teams and make a proposal for 80 housing units along Folkparksvägen in Solberga in the south of Stockholm.

The focus point of the project was to stimulate urban activity and create attractive, flexible homes in close relation to nature at the same time. Our ambition is to create an inclusive housing environment, with flexibility, community and opportunities as keywords. Here, neighbours, residents and by-passers will experience a vibrant and varied urban ensemble with many possibilities - in the middle of nature. Hence, we have baptised the project to ‘Kameleonten’ (the chameleon).

Kameleonten is a characteristic new neighbourhood along Folkparksvägen in Solberga. The demand for a different, flexible and adaptable housing is great. In addition to a home, close access to a variety of activities and functions is important. We want to offer informal and formal meeting places, car and bicycle pool, workshop and repair rooms, green houses and food box coolers in entrances integrated in building volumes with a clear form and a strong identity. To maximise the use and flexibility over time we even offer the possibility to easily rent out a part of the apartment.

The clear silhouette creates a strong relation to the surrounding context in height, scale and direction. By turning the volumes in the same direction as the characteristic residential area on top of the hill, a variety of small-scale public spaces and collective gardens is created that interact both with the street on one side and the natural landscape on the other. Informal walkways connect these areas to the direct surrounding.
Starting point for the layout is a housing type which contains four apartments on each plan in different sizes. Pairing the four volumes two by two generates not only richer plans with more apartment types, but also interesting spatial qualities with subtile transitions between public and private. The compact top-floor apartments have large roof terraces and generous ceilings. Thanks to the rotation and elevating the courtyard on top of the garage, optimal conditions are created to maximise utilisation of all plans and ensure ample daylight and views. Large flexibility is built into the plans that make it possible to adapt housing size to the market during the process or at a later stage.